16 Aug 2015

After her husband died three years ago, 49 year-old Ms Olga Sibanda did not just fold her hands and stare poverty in the eye.

She knew that with the breadwinner no more, staying home doing nothing would spell disaster for her family. She had to find ways of putting food on the table.  She started out doing some menial jobs around Marobela until a sympathiser came to her rescue.

Speaking in an interview recently, Ms Sibanda said one of her clients, Ms Grace Botana, told her about a company called Collect-a-Can that recycles cans. She said she fell in love with the idea and took the firm’s number from Ms Botana.

She then set on piling up cans at her homestead for the company to collect. She said at first, she was paid according to the number of bales she had filled but nowadays they weigh the cans and pay 70t per kg for ordinary cans, and P3.50 per kg for aluminium cans.

Ms Sibanda said that she gets to work at her own pace and time. If she wants more money, she works harder. She said at first, villagers gave her discouraging looks.

They however grew to understand and appreciate her work, which also keeps the village clean. She said that collecting cans has helped her make ends meet, adding that piece jobs were not giving her enough to feed her family.

The widow encouraged others not to just sit and wait for government handouts. She advised that they should always seek assistance from other people on how to help themselves out of poverty because one day the government will not have funds to help anymore.  BOPA